On this day 45 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. led a group of civil rights protesters to the City of St. Jude, a Roman Catholic school on the outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama. The historic march, which started days earlier in the city of Selma, would culminate the next day at the State Capitol Building in Montgomery.

For his next project, "Precious" director Lee Daniels will tell the story of this culminating moment for the American civil rights movement in "Selma." He told MTV in an exclusive interview yesterday that the cast is firming up. The key roles of President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Ralph Abernathy are set. Alabama Governor George Wallace remains unconfirmed, but an offer is out and a deal is waiting to be finalized.

"Liam Neeson's playing Johnson," Daniels told us. The former U.S. president, who was sworn into office after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, wasn't present for the march of course, but he was an instrumental figure in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the National Voting Rights Act of 1965.

As for Ralph Abernathy, who worked closely with King Jr. in planning the Selma marches -- there were three, though only the last one made it to Montgomery -- Daniels is particularly pleased with that casting. "We have Cedric the Entertainer, who is going to be [Ralph] Abernathy. He is a really good choice, so we're excited about that."